'If some Europeans do not allow Muslims to assimilate into European national cultures, some Muslims also refuse to try and adopt and assimilate.'
One shocking finding of the investigation was the extent to which sexual violence was committed against detainees, often extremely brutally, by the Sri Lankan security forces, with men as likely to be victims as women.
'The so-called separatists are representatives of Pakistan. They get paid from Islamabad for propagating that country's policy and conniving in her ploy of accession of Kashmir to Pakistan.'
Finally to end the dispute, Sharma threatened to show her shoes. Pasbola declared regally that he would like to forgo that particular honour. Sharma ignored him. Instead, she bent down, took off her shoe and triumphantly held her prize aloft, and said delightedly, "Yeh dekhiye! (Have a look!)"
DMK Working President MK Stalin is worried about divisions in the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam after the death of Jayalalithaa and keen that it should not affect the functioning of the administration.
Rahul Gandhi has the potential to grow into a good, effective, leader of the Opposition provided he puts his heart and soul into it, with a willingness to learn, says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant who worked closely with India's first three prime ministers.
'...because we are truer to the spirit of the Hindu faith.' 'There is absolutely no question that the Hinduism of the mob lynchers, the people who have killed others because of what they are eating or how they are worshipping or the faith they belong to or what they're doing professionally, those are, to my mind, not Hindus at all.'
'What we need from the civilian and military authorities are clear strategies rather than an emotional decision to hang terrorists on death row.'
One of the best stories coming out of Bihar is about a place where Chandragupta Maurya, Buddha, Ashoka, Sher Shah Suri and India's Mona Lisa meet.
'Learning by doing is in our genes.' 'We are applying the wrong method by making our children sit in a classroom for eight hours, listening to someone talk.'
The parallels between Modi's direct and indirect methods and his fan base, and those of Trump, are blinding.
'We have about Rs 4 lakh crore debt on a state budget of about Rs 1.5 lakh crore.' 'We are in a debt two-and-a-half times our annual budget,' says the banker who would have been Tamil Nadu's finance minister had the DMK won.
Lifting the AFSPA can certainly be attempted but the provisions of the AFSPA, as an emergency law that empowers the army -- the nation's instrument of last resort -- must continue to remain on the statute books given the increasingly violent and uncertain times that the subcontinent is likely to face in coming years, says Nitin A Gokhale.
For those who are unaware of the migrant crisis the EU is facing and wondering just what the fuss is all about, here's an explanation of what's going on.
'The BJP has latched on to the idea of nationalism, but the nationalism they advocate is not nationalism as we have understood it since the time of the freedom movement.' 'This is not secular nationalism, it is Hindu nationalism.' 'It is a form of nationalism that is exclusionary and it tends to conflate national interest with the government.' 'So, if you disagree with the government, for example, on surgical strikes or demonetisation, you are anti-national or holder of black money.'
Narendra Modi's success at the BRICS summit is the best Diwali gift for India's diplomacy and marks her ascendancy to global leadership, says Tarun Vijay.
Pasbola had a number of queries about the nails of the corpse found at Gagode Khurd. Did it have nails? Nails, in a case of strangulation, are key because they often have particles and skin beneath them to show the victim had been grasping something as s/he was strangled.
G Sreedathan interviews Dinanath Batra, president of Siksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas and national convener of Siksha Bacho Andolan, who shot to fame after he was instrumental in getting American scholar Wendy Doniger's book on Hinduism pulped.
'If ISIS was popular, they don't need to use violence.' 'The strategy of violence is a false interpretation of Islam.' 'The main victims of ISIS violence are Muslims.'
What is the road ahead for Rahul Gandhi? Shehzad Poonawalla offers a blueprint.
Investors can take heart from the first Cabinet meeting in the second innings.
'There are some castes that grab power, then pass on the benefits to those who belong to their own caste.'
'Two have already sacrificed their lives.' 'How many more shall need to sacrifice before the government listens?' 'Four, five or six? They are ready, waiting.' After Ganga campaigner G D Agrawal's death, a Haridwar ashram's sadhus are on a relay fast unto death.
If Aylan Kurdi was a Bangladeshi boy on the border with Assam or West Bengal, would you call him an infiltrator, asks Mango Indian.
The soul of India resides in pluralism and tolerance. This plurality of our society has come through assimilation of ideas over centuries. Secularism and inclusion are a matter of faith for us. It is our composite culture which makes us into one nation.
Thousands of people have lost their lives and thousands more displaced in the violence in South Sudan. The United Nations mission and humanitarian agencies are under strain to protect camps and to provide internally displaced persons with water, food and other emergency relief. What flared up as a political conflict in South Sudan is now assuming an ethnic character.
The second part of BJP president Amit Shah's interview to Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com.
'I went away from the industry because all the people I enjoyed working with, like Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra, are no more.' 'They left this world and went away, so I lost interest in my work.'
According to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who spent 19 months in prison during the 1975 Emergency imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, it is not possible for anybody to convert a democratic India into a "dictatorship" in this day and age.
On the 40th anniversary of the beginning of one of the darkest periods in our history, here are six painful facts about the Emergency.
Former Watson Fellow and social entrepreneur Srikar Gullapalli talks about the issues affecting India's growth and tells us why he wants more people to actively participate in building a bright future and put India on the global map.
Her elfin face could be seen and once more after many days the victim of this murder had a face and a presence.
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It's perverse to rationalise 'controlled' killings or torture -- without going down a slippery moral slope. Once the state stoops to torture, it's liable to sink into tyranny, says Praful Bidwai.
Mark Tully on the India he loves.
Substantial gains can still be made with good policies and initiatives.
India's Kailash Satyarthi received the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 on Wednesday, sharing it with Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel laureate, for their work on promoting child rights in the troubled sub-continent, where millions are deprived of their childhood and education.
'The Pakistani military has encouraged and supported terrorist organisations, especially in Kashmir, as a means of waging proxy war against the Indian military and the country's superior economic resources.' 'The evidence is irrefutable with the recent killing of 46 paramilitary troops being just the latest example.'
Resident doctors are the engines that run hospitals. For the patient, they are the face, hands, and voice of the hospital.
'I have strong reasons to believe that Accused number 4 (A4) Pratim Mukerjea with the assistance of other persons, including Accused no 3 (A3) turned approver Shyamwar Pinturam Rai may have conspired and abducted my daughter Sheena in 2012 and made her untraceable and subsequently destroyed evidence.'
'The issue of the larger homeland of Nagalim, the dream of the Nagas to hold sway over swathes of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, is just that, a dream.' 'The NSCN has been told categorically that the government is not going to concede on this issue.'
